Please note:
PLEASE READ more detailed information here: Deutsch
- English.
This format is based on a stream of events going back to 1980, following an
open, highly communicative „DaZiBao“
process - including participants‘ messaging activities, side-events, virtual
conferencing [www.p-n-w.net/events],
collections of Seeds of Change in the 1990‘s Viewsletters [www.benking.de/viewsletter], round-tables
at international scientific, cultural and political events, and recent
international initiatives like „100,001 diversities“ and „1,001 action for
dialogue“ (2008). 
You may wonder about the number 10,001. We held
dialogues about „1,001 actions“ (1001 meaning „many“ in the Arab and Western
world), and about 100,001 to represent unity in diversity for the
UN-Biodiversity conference, CBD in
Numbers
by themselves remain „empty“ and meaningless when not connected and contextualized.
For people with a monologic, unipolar, dualistic mindset, even 2 or 10 appears
(too) „many“, even frightening. But in Chinese culture, which uses different,
even combined sign systems and concepts, a much higher conceptual richness and
diversity is needed, and common. For them, „many“ means not 100, not 1,000 but
10.001. In a globalizing civilization, we should cherish the beauty and
richness of natural and cultural expressions.
A
broad range of partners, contributors and sponsors have been involved to
support the development of „other“ conferencing formats in dialogue and
deliberations for many years. A few long-term partners are mentioned above.
Please visit the event website and study reference papers. We have the pleasure
to kick-off this 2009 campaign at the UN in
Please come back for updates and schedules in
the on-line version of this invitation here: www.10001seeds.wordpress.com and see
the Symposion Blog of side-events: www.symposion.wetpaint.com
1,001 Actions for Dialogue in
2008 
In 2008, the Anna Lindh-Foundation campaign in
37 countries for ‘1001 actions for dialog’ was a great success. One of the
concerted national events was in
Why 10.001 dialogs? Why not 1001 dialogs or
maybe 1001+ ?
In the Arabian culture, like in our Western
Culture, 1001 stands for „many“. The magnitudes in our cultures are the same,
have common roots. We have all heard about 1001 Nights, „alf-leila-wa leila“ in
But the concepts for variety and diversity in
other cultures are different. In fact, for many people, more than 2, more than
5 or 10 - what we can easily count – already are „many“.
|
The
Chinese, long used to greater dimensions, consider 10,000 to be „many“, they
write 10,000 miles – 10,000 books, say ‘a picture equals 10,000 words’!
Dialogues |
Wan yen I hua |
Wan Ii wan shu |
We therefore want to invite for something
„extra“: ‘many and one’ pictures, words, expressions or signs. If interested, this series - within the United Nations publications – is
focussing on the dialogue of civilizations, one contribution on Unity in
Diversity (1998?) … [more] [more] [more] [more]
Our intention is not only to collect „many“ -
like many best practices, or jewels, but share them and empower people by
having them see the commons in common Schemas or „Constructions“. Maybe call it
common „frames of references“. And please follow the discussion on how and what
kind of research “avenues” are “under construction”. [more]
The central idea of this activity is to keep the 1001 dialogues
campaign alive, help it bear new fruits and create lasting effects by
harvesting and disseminating the best and brightest seeds collected over the
years.
How
to sustain and expand 1001 dialogues?
Some central issues around Open-Forum Dialog,
Deliberation and Decision Cultures (DDDC) / SDDP (explained later)
- Do we need rules? Which rules and frames ? What expectations in an
“attention and access world“ ?
- May people with an “Eminency” or “Celebrity” credit talk as much
and loud as they can while expecting others to listen passively? Some
“talkers“ seem to believe in this.
- Do you pitch and then leave the stage, market or bourse, or do you
engage in meaningful dialogue with the assumption that you very well might
be wrong and can learn from others? [more]
[more]
Here are just some opening questions to listen
and learn from the experiences and visions of others:
- Are you ready to engage in meaningful,
compassionate, attentive, empowering and co-creative dialog and deliberations?
- Do you believe in counting down the Top Five problems and then throw money at
their „solution“? - Are you ready to check and analyse roots and drivers of
causes? - Do you recognise a major task of capacity building to find solutions
that truly match the complexity of the challenges and are situated in known
context? - Do you believe that it is enough to follow a list of action items
from management books? - Do you believe Gestalt-competences include awareness
of ends, means, and how-to’s where you discuss the frame and include
orientation, meaning and sense-making, learning to dance with all needed
competences, including all senses and intelligences for properly grounded and
lasting actions?
We have organised such deliberation and
empowerment side-events for many years. See outcomes, formats, and the merging
of virtual conferencing with authentic dialog experiments at these sites:
www.open-forum.de/backgroundpapers
and www.p-n-w.net/events
THE VALUES, MERITS, and CONDITIONS
of in/formal, invited, and surprise, real and virtual
dialogues
What is it about?
We invite Participants and Delegates,
Stakeholders and Risk-takers on-site and via tele-conferencing worldwide to
share and build new relations between the best and brightest ideas and best practices
across disciplines. Please visit this Blog where this is explained in greater
detail and where we collect the “Seeds”:
www.10001seeds.wordpress.com
How does it work?
We bring these ideas into fruition in
open-format dialogues and air the results in different media.
Through radio stations, the internet, newsrooms
and traditional media.
Who participates?
Personal invitations go to special and honorary
guests, users, drivers, stakeholders, risk takers, policymakers and the public
in various formats in and „around“ the „Negotiations“ and „other“ events.
History?
There is a tradition to do side-events around
local and international events: www.p-n-w.net/events
When?
On invitation during a period of 2 weeks
including the Earth Day in March und the DESD summing-up events April 4. We
have collected content, will screen the results at the DESD events, check
informal sideline talks in the lobbies and hotels, and invite anyone to report
and propose issues and topics to: heiner@benking.de
and eric@pnyv.org. Access to virtual
conference rooms, detailed instructions and time-slots will be made available,
see the links on the front-page.
How to enhance dialogue,
listen and empower, locally and globally:
We have collected,
experimented on and developed new and old, structured and open Dialogue
Formats. Have a look at: www.open-forum.de
and http://www.open-forum.de/transcultural_dialogue.htm
One very special dialog format: Magic Round Table's:
Here are the rules: Each person is given an
equal number of beads, stones, or other tokens representing equal units of
time. The total meeting time is divided into units matching the distributed
tokens, thus valuing them. Each member then introduces her/himself, and if so
desired, offers a topic for discussion. Members then give tokens to others
whose topics they want to have introduced for discussion. The "voting or
encouraging" continues as topics generate more or less interest; and as
others join in the discussion, they can receive tokens as encouragement to
continue with their line of thought. This open, transparent format can
encourage inhibited people to participate and minimise domination by
authoritative types. In case of unexpected changes in meeting duration, the
tokens can be re/devalued inflated/deflated to match the remaining available
time.
Who takes part?
Invited Keynoters and
Delegates, - but honouring the principle of Open Space: “who is there are the
right people“ – thus opening space for unexpected high quality contributions
from creatives across disciplines and nations. As we do it locally and through
virtual conferencing many voices meet and learn from each other, co-create,
empower and enlarge visionary, solid and lasting concepts or question the
status quo in search for positive ends.
Who is in charge?
Many people get
invitations & make invitations; stay tuned and come back later.
Do you have more
questions? Visit www.p-n-w.net/10001 and
do not hesitate to contact us.
Some Ideas behind
Polylogue and Shared Order Schemas (Covenants): informal,
trans-disciplinary & multi-cultural…
To
collect not only visions and applications, but set them into context and
further practice.
To
make these treasures available in various contexts, - think of order schemas in
our
traditions,
and about combining and expanding such schemas. www.9-d.org
l Magic Square and Kosmos of the Chinese morphing schemas and signs [more]
l House of Wisdom بيت الحكمة Bait al-Hikma [more]
l Oikos – Ecumene – Ecudomy : „Western
Schemas“ [more] [more]
griechisch κόσμος, Kosmos (Humboldt), regardig the needed Agora see: [more]
[more]
l and
traditional order schemas like
„Wheels“, grids or other “Schemas”… or explaining living metaphors like tree,
house, landscape – see: [more] [more] [more]
Let
us try to bridge such “orders” of „wisdom“ wheels or grids, and improve and
adapt, modify, merge and morph them towards new models, new shared imaginations
and orientations for better addressing the ever faster emerging global
challenges.
What is behind such
broad complex challenges?
l Not just searching but finding and
sharing
l Building Commons towards many
interwoven and dancing covenants
l Help to overcome ignorance,
isolation, neglect, power-plays of self-selected fews…
l Come to develop meaningful
constructions and actions.
l Cultivating differences, beauty and
harmony in many cultures, traditions, languages, futures,...
l The search for contextualisation and
deliberations [more]
Poetic Reminiscence: as collected for
UN-Climate
”Planet Earth once was a place of
remarkable beauty. Early explorers returned home full of awe of the variety that
nature had graced the various continents with, and achieved ecological balance
in so many ways. But explorers were followed by settlers who tried to enforce
their habits on the new areas while exporting away vast quantities of anything
novel they found back to their home countries.
Over
short time, people succeeded in destroying natural systems to such an extent
that these systems were no longer able to function in the stable way that
humankind needed for common and secure futures. Gradually the worries expressed
by those who could see the dangers filtered through all levels of society and
governments were forced to take notice. Early attempts to convene globally for
solving the problems, however, quickly showed that current perceptions and
structures for meetings made it practically impossible to truly exchange ideas,
let alone agree on courses of action. A growing number of people realized that
humans would have to solve the problems of communication and blinkered
thinking, and learn to accept other talkers and listeners as equals, before the
problems of world balance and sustainability could be addressed. Here are some
of their thoughts on the matter.”